The invention relates to containers for use in transporting tobacco, such as raw tobacco leaf or reconstituted tobacco, e.g. from the country of origin to the country of finished product manufacture.
Traditionally, raw tobacco leaf is heated and made pliable in the presence of steam, and while in this state, it is fed into an hydraulic press which compresses a column of leaf from about 1000 cm down to about 70 cm into a cardboard carton. The press works over an empty carton containing a steel sleeve or corset. When the press head returns on its up stroke the sleeve is removed and the flaps of the carton are closed, and the carton strapped. The tobacco is then often impregnated with a gaseous fumigant.
Such cardboard cartons need external strapping, because the tobacco tries to spring up before it has cooled. This strapping step is time consuming and adds additional cost to that of the carton. The cartons are inherently vulnerable to damage, particularly when wet, during handling, e.g. by a fork lift truck, or by being partially collapsed when stacked owing to shrinkage of the contents. As a result they are only expected to make one journey.
GB-A-946466 discloses a protective container having a bottom wall incorporating a pallet and connectable to integral front, side, rear and top walls by a sliding clasp fastener. This would not be suitable for the present purpose; there is no indication as to how the upper part of the container is fabricated; and its walls are apparently vapour proof.